Live Traders Talk: Transparency and The Psychology of Trading Stocks

In this latest interview, I had the chance to talk to the amazing founders of LiveTraders. See what inspired them to create a resource giving tips on how to effectively trade online.

Q: Give us a brief background of LiveTraders.net. How long has the site been in existence and what inspired you to create it?

A: LiveTraders.net has been around since Jan 2015. We are a new company with lots of experience, as all 3 of us (Jay, Jared and Anmol) have been in the industry for many years. The inspiration was honestly born out of disappointment with the educational trading community. Trading is a very unique profession in that there is a massive gap between ‘theory’ and ‘reality.’ There are many folks out there who can teach theory very well, but they are simply unable to apply it, yet they are selling products and services that ‘suggest’ they are master traders. We know, because we spent some time at a place like that.

With LiveTraders.net our goal was simple: Show our clients REAL trading, in REAL time, with REAL money. No excuses, no façade, no BS, just real trading. That’s a dangerous thing to do, because as traders we all go through difficult periods, but the difference here is that those difficult periods are SHOWN live on the screen for everyone to see, so if we get a new potential client and they stop by our room on a ‘bad’ day, they might not think we are very good traders. However, we are comfortable with this, because we want to show the TRUTH about trading, which is, we consistently make money. We’ve truly taken the slogan, “actions speak louder than words” to heart. It’s a challenging business but you CAN make money, the same way we do at LiveTraders.net. No more excuses, just results! We’ve built a nice community of honest, professional traders using this approach!

A: Our typical customer is someone who is genuinely interested in being a successful trader, and wants to learn from open and honest professionals. Our clients are the ones who are tired of ‘hearing’ about theory, and are interested in ‘seeing’ how that theory translates into REAL money. We have traders of all levels, from people who have never taken a trade, to experienced professionals who trade with multi-million dollar accounts.

Our products and services don’t differentiate between beginner and experienced, we teach our brand of technical analysis, which is to keep the approach simple and profitable. We also enjoy inviting our clients/traders to come on the mic and talk about their trading experiences, good or bad. It’s something that has been very positive for us and our clients have appreciated hearing from their peers as well.

We don’t talk “at” our clients; we talk “with” and “to” our clients. They can appreciate that we are human too, and we make trading mistakes as well. It is invaluable for them to see that we are not robots; we are simply a vision of what they can be. The reason they feel more confident after watching us trade LIVE is that they realize that we do some of the same things they do, which makes them realize they aren’t as far away from profitability as they initially thought! Commonality is hugely important.

Q: Your site talks about the psychology of trading stocks. Why is fear and anxiety a stumbling stone for trading success?

A: How much time do you have? Kidding. Mastering, or more appropriately, managing emotions is one of the more challenging things to do in this business. Emotions tend to negatively afflict traders because we ALL have egos. If we’re being honest, our ego doesn’t like to lose, and thus it’s challenging to accept a stop loss or to allow a stock to pivot, while watching the P-L go down. This is why MONEY management is crucial, so that even if we make an error and let our ego get the best of us, we can still live to fight another day by trading small shares until we better understand our emotional pitfalls.

Q: What’s the most common mistake many traders make? What advice do you have at overcoming these mistakes?

A: The #1 mistake that traders make, hands down, bar none, is POOR MONEY MANAGEMENT. Every trader loses, especially when they are new. So, the key is to not allow those early losses to have a dramatic impact on your overall account. We do this with proper money management. The advice is simple: use common sense. If you can’t control your money management, then you will not be a trader for very long. So, either set-up account rules that will lock your account at a specified price level, or have someone else manage your positions. Otherwise you won’t be around very long!

Q: Over the years many people who’ve had experience with larger online trading platforms, have grow weary of some of their practices. Why is transparency important to your company?

A: Traders have grown weary for good reason, there are too many companies pitching garbage. We’ve seen companies that have been around for over 20 years and yet for whatever reason they still won’t trade live with their P-L’s open or even show a real P-L. Why? If you’ve been trading for 15 years or 20 years, why are you unable to show your actual trades with P-L open? This is one of the only businesses I can think of that takes people’s money for education, but is unwilling to prove their profitability.

We wanted to change that. We’re not professing to make millions doing this, but you will see REAL trades, in REAL time, with a REAL P-L. It’s a refreshing change from many places we’ve seen through the years.

Being successful at anything takes hard work and dedication, but the beauty in trading is that the upside is nearly unlimited, you can trade from just about anywhere in the world and you simply can’t buy the level of freedom and flexibility this industry provides. The lifestyle is truly phenomenal, if you’re willing to put in the effort!